Atiku To Osinbajo: 'Your Position On Restructuring Is Wrong'

"Restructuring is not just about the devolution of powers to the states, but also about transforming the respective roles of the federal, state and local governments."

Former vice president Atiku Abubakar has said that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was wrong in his claim that the problem of Nigeria not connected with restructuring.

In a recent interaction in the United States, Osinbajo had asserted that the “problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring…and we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argument that our problems stem from some geographic restructuring.”

But Atiku in a statement signed by him in Abuja on Saturday said that he was surprised that Osinbajo could take such a position.

He blamed the Vice President for his alleged inability to appreciate the “connection between Nigeria’s defective structure and its underperformance.”

Atiku, who is a presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, said, “It is unhelpful to reduce the construct of ‘restructuring’ to a geographical concept as Osinbajo has done, which in itself demonstrates a lack of appreciation of the core tenets of the concept.

“For the avoidance of doubt, restructuring is not about the re-drawing of state or regional boundaries.

According to Atiku, restructuring is not just about the devolution of powers to the states, but also about transforming the respective roles of the federal, state and local governments to perform more efficiently in matters of territorial as well as economic governance.